


NEVERLAND

by TheDump



Category: Fallout: New Vegas
Genre: All of this shit is taking place in fucking Kansas, Kansas Warning, Manipulation, Midwest Warning, Multi, Original work - Freeform, This is my OC - Freeform, actual abuse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-05
Updated: 2020-01-05
Packaged: 2021-02-27 06:40:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 18,582
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22132681
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheDump/pseuds/TheDump
Summary: The Technical Prequel to Westbound because I decided to post this after it; but I technically wrote this before Westbound so beware that this story may be (on a technical level) way fucking worst than Westbound.





	1. Chapter 1

The sun hangs over the horizon, beating down on Berts back. Kansas was a flat wasteland, rolling plains of sand and dead plants for as far as he could see. It felt like he was walking along the worlds biggest graveyard and if he wasn’t careful he’d find himself 6 feet deep. One foot in front of the other left then right. Left then… his right knee buckled and gave out from under his weight. He let out a sharp cry of surprise, trying to lift his leg back up. His vision was blurring, his body felt so heavy.  
Bert wasn’t sure when he passed out, but his face had at some point hit the dirt. Yet when he came back to, he wasn’t cooking in the sun anymore. His eyes were fixated on the ceiling, it was cruddy and made of scrap, but it didn’t feel like a hotbox there was a pleasant breeze hitting his face. He turned his head slightly and saw a violently sputtering shaking machine in the corner of the room. It was… mildly worrying but Bert had other things on his mind as he tried to lift himself out of the bed.  
A cold wet towel flopped out in front of him onto his lap. He wiped his hand across his forehead, wet… Who had been taking care of him? Where was he? When did he pass out? How long had he been out? 101 questions dashed and darted around in his head like dalmations as he pulled himself out of the bed onto his feet. His shoes had been taken off, where were they? He stumbled out of his bed, and the door begun to swing open. He stumbled over himself in shock, trying to reach for anything that could be swung really hard really fast but the room was barren. The door creaks open further and a tall thin figure stepped inside, the light from the sun behind them creating a dark silhouette. Bert felt a sharp shiver go up to his spine as the figure's eyes went from the bed to him.  
They took a step towards him, they were becoming a bit more clear now. They were wearing a large gasmask with a giant filter on the front with white painted rows of teeth running along with it, with two giant eyepieces. They looked like a leech… and on their back was a whirling machine with some tubes stretching out from it. The figure took another step, this one more hesitant, lifting their gloved hands into the air. Bert gave them a weird look, he wasn’t entirely sure how to react now. He knew he couldn’t really start swinging at them.. The questions from before began to flood his mind again “You… got...any water?” and that was the worst possible one to come out of his mouth at that moment.  
The masked figure's fingers curled inwards, and a muffled snort shot out from the filter, “If it makes you feel better, you’re not the first one to panic.”  
Bert gave them another look up and down “Wouldn’t ya think taking off the mask would help with that?”  
“Well, I am more comfortable with the mask, besides. You don’t seem very scared anymore.” they clap their hands together and squat down to Bert's level, those giant bugging gasmask eyes were.. Daunting. His face scrunched up a little in discomfort, eyes darting around the room again.  
“So… Maskie, where exactly am I?” he gestured around himself  
“The name’s Leech and you’re in this room. Found you passed out in the dirt and I couldn’t in my right mind leave a runaway to cook.” their voice was muffled behind the mask but had some upbeat jovial quality to it. Bert, listening intently, started to pick out details about them as they talked. It appeared ‘Leech’ was a girl, for sure, and she also had a similarly thick southern accent.  
“What makes you so certain I am a runaway?” he asked, still apprehensive to Leech  
“‘Scuse you I was hoping to hear a thank you first thing when I told ya I am the one who saved your skin. First a thank you, then we can talk about more questions.” Leech talked with her hands a lot, making grand gestures before standing up from her squat and approaching closer to Bert, offering a hand to help him up, “c’mon, just a lil thanks will do.”  
Bert scoffed lightly taking the hand to help himself up “Right, fine. Thank you kindly.” Bert's small thin form was lifted RIGHT off the ground by the stronger masked lass. He let out a short yelp, landing on his feet and looking at bit rattled by the sudden velocity, “eh.. Hn..”  
“Haha! You weigh next to nothin, even when you were nothing but straight dead weight I could lug you across the desert like I was carrying a very empty bag of wheat. You’re so-” Bert stopped them there with a hiss through his teeth, getting a slight jump out of them,” right, right. No more comments about your small, light, easy to lift, frame.” Bert couldn’t see into that mask but he got the distinct feeling they had a giant stupid grin on them.  
“You didn’t answer my question, what makes you so certain I am a runaway?”  
“Give yourself a real good lookdown, you’re in torn to shit clothes that barely fit you and I found you passed out in the plains. Also, nobody our age just...wanders the wastes. We’re always running away from something.”  
Leech was dead on, and Bert’s face scrunched up slightly. Rather than acknowledging how correct they were he stuck onto their wording, “We? Can you explain this we business to me?”  
Leech poked their chest with their thumb, and then Bert’s chest with her pointer “Me, and you. We can’t be more than a year apart from each other. Hell, I could say that about most folks around here except for the townspeople and, well…Peter.”  
Bert blinked several times over as he tried to process what they said “Peter? Wait, is this town full of nothing but kids? Wait wait wait, where the hell am I anyway?”  
Leech placed a hand on their shoulder, pulling Bert towards the door “Well, sticks, you’re in neverland”


	2. LOST BOY

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Meaty chapters time

Leech dragged Bert behind her by his forearm, his eyes darting from left to right, up and down. He was everywhere as the sights and sounds of ‘Neverland’ slowly overwhelmed him. Townspeople parted as they walked past Leech, discussing amongst themselves. Vendors on either side greeted Leech, and towards the end of the vendor alley, there were two similarly armored masked individuals. They threw up their arms and waved at Leech, shouting at them   
“EY LEECH, WHO’S THE TUMBLEWEED?” the voice was upper pitched, they seemed shorter than Bert as well. Bert appropriately leered down at them, looking into the dark goggles of their unusual gas mask. It was a lot like Leech’s, custom made. The Plastic on the front part was upturned and wrapped together into a sort of muzzle with faded painted teeth on the side. Leech turned towards Bert slightly, pulling him a bit forward by the wrist.   
“Introduce yourself, why don’t ‘cha?” She let go of his wrist, bumping his shoulder with a light punch. Bert seized up a little, looking between the dog masked individual and then get a look at the much taller masked fellow. Their mask goggles were massive, with a strange prismed pattern overtop it...Bug eyes. Bert clicked his tongue trying to find the right words.   
“I am...Bert. Yeah, fuckin Bert Gibbins. Wanderer extraordinaire. Excuse me for my, uh, apprehension but I am a bit overwhelmed by 30 fucking things coming at me from every direction. So let's simplify this whole thing and you all just tell me your names.”   
A snort came from the taller one, he gave a light nudge to his smaller compatriot “Sounds like you did when you first came here.” he then turns towards Bert to address him, “that’s the kinda blunt-speaking that usually gets you shot by ego-driven adults. I am Fly, that’s Hound. We work with Leech’s raiding party. How old are you, Bert?”   
“How the hell am I supposed to know?” Bert visibly shrugged, Hound eyeing him up a bit   
“Probably 15, maybe 16.” Hound said, self-assuring himself with a few small nods, “I’m 14, Fly is 17 and leech is 16.” Fly nodded, agreeing with him.   
“...15 huh?” Bert would undoubtedly forget this later, his perception of time was a little skewered when it came to years, and sometimes days… Months and hours felt exactly the same when you were alone for long enough. Like a thin fog was pulled across your mind, to keep it protected from the loneliness.   
Leech grabbed Bert’s wrist again “Alrighty Mr.SpaceOut, I need to bring you to Peter still. Catch you two later, tell the others to make another bunk.” the two nodded as Leech dragged Bert further down, darting past scrap houses. Bert was taken slightly aback by all the homes. They had signs of… life. In them. This was the first town Bert had seen in a good distance that wasn’t half-abandoned and full of smoke and sad faces. Bert couldn’t help feeling a little jealous. Finally, Leech let go of his wrist, opening the door to a dilapidated building. It looked pre-war, a nearby sign with faded lettering hung over the door. Bert couldn’t read it, giving it a sour look. He never liked it when he was reminded of being unable to read, “it says Library.” Leech was watching him, seeing his frustrated expression. He recoiled a little, a light flush spreading over his face   
“I-I knew that. Whatever. What’s in here anyways?” He pulled back on their wrist, apprehensive about stepping into this ‘Library’.   
“Peters in here, he wanted to talk to ya. Problem with that?”   
“...A little. Who is this Peter guy? Why me? I appreciate the hospitality but… I was hoping to get back on the trail as soon as I can. I don’t really stay anywhere long and, no offense, I am a little creeped out by all the fuckin gas masks. That Fly guy said you run them as a raiding party? Are you guys raiders?”   
She let out a long sigh, seemingly a little deflated now “I wish he didn’t say that… raider is an ugly word. We’re more like… well. Just… Just talk to Peter. Peter can explain this a whole hell of a lot better than me. If we were nothing but raiders, why didn’t I strip your corpse out in the sun?”   
Bert’s face softened a little, his eyes darting from them to the library “...Yeah. Ok. I can talk to this Peter.” This didn’t feel right, but Leech had something in their voice that Bert couldn’t quite ignore. He didn’t like not being able to put why he was going through with this into words, but he would have to deal with it.  
The library was dimly lit, the room is filled by the soft hum of the overhead light. Sitting at the far end of the room was a middle-aged man with dark rounded glasses, he perked up when Bert and Leech stepped into the room, closing his book and setting it off to the side. He had a wide devilish grin on his face now, giving Bert a few look overs. Bert was getting a bit sick and fucking tired of not being able to see any of the eyes of the people he’s talking to.   
“Sorry, you seem irritated. Have some trouble getting here?” Pete reached up, pulling the glasses down off his face, folding them delicately and setting them off to the side. They were an auburn goldish color, and frighteningly intense. Bert was taken aback, clearing his throat and readjusting his posture, “heh, kid you don’t have any need to be scared of me.”   
“What makes you jump to that?” Bert’s eyebrow twitched a little as he tried holding his sour, but neutral, expression.  
Peter motioned around his face “It’s ya face. I read it like a book. It’s pretty easy once you get used to it. Yet once you’re aware of it you kinda get into the habit of trying to hide your… uh, giveaways.” he lifted his dark shades when he said ‘giveaways’, pulling them open again and placing them over his eyes, “so Leech, what’s your make of this one?”  
Leech, seemingly having been waiting to be addressed, stepped forward, excitedly talking with their hands “No more perfect a fit than anyone else I tell you, Peter. This kid, er, Bert here, he reeks of wasteland wanderer. Nowhere else to go but anywhere else, he told me himself.” Bert was suddenly very worried about what Leech was on about, slowly raising his hand to interject but coiled back when Peter raised his hand to silence Leech, turning his attention back to Bert   
“So, Bert, stop me if I say something wrong.” he adjusts himself in his seat, rolling his hand in his wrist with a dull cracking noise, “pushed around your whole life, and wherever you're from you never want to go back to it? Yet despite wanting nothing more than to just… hit the dirt running, you can’t help but feel a little jealous. Jealous when you see people with homes. So you lash out at them.” Bert’s eye’s widened slightly as he thought on it, listening to Peter. He wasn’t- well... Ok, he was a little jealous. Yet he didn’t feel right exactly with what Peter was saying, but at the same time, he couldn’t exactly say they were wrong. Peter seemed to give him a moment before continuing, “Bert, I like to think of myself as a good samaritan. I give the homeless a home. So they don’t lash out against those who don’t deserve it. We lash out against those who do. I ain't stupid, I know you’ll all will be… violent. Yet I wanna point that violence in the right direction. Bert, do you want to break something?”   
Bert thought the question might have been rhetorical, but Peter remained patiently silent as Bert croaked out with “What kinda question is that? Of course, I do.”   
Peter let out a chuckle, nodding to himself “I guess that is a dumb question.” he sat up straight, leaning back in his chair and twisting to reach behind the chair. He pulled out a bat and flipped it in his hand, offering it to Bert. Bert’s eyes flicked from the bat to Peter repeatedly. It seemed kinda stupid to offer him a weapon. He could just bash those pretty eye’s out of his skull for that. Yet there was some sort of satisfaction. Like he was being trusted with something important. No one had ever trusted him with a weapon before, which was fair. If Madame Gibbins had ever given him a bat he would have caved her in. He grasped the bat handle, it was loosely wrapped with a yellowing paper-like material, the aluminum that poked through the wrap was cool to the touch. He held it for a minute, he knew what he could do with it but he wasn’t exactly sure… what to do with it. Peter chimed in, “a lot of these old tables are rotted out, basically held up by luck and dust. Why don’t you get a practice swing in?”   
Bert’s eyes slid over to one of the tables, there was a thin dark substance across its surface, and a few holes already bored through the tabletop. Bert pulled the bat back and slammed it into the tabletop with a satisfying wet thwack, the table breaking in the middle of the legs and bending inward. It was a lot like when you kick an old pumpkin, bright white wood bits sticking out from where it broke. It felt, good. Like when he stole something without even a hint of being noticed. Or when he’s playing his favorite holotape plays. Bert gave himself a satisfied grin, glancing over at Peter “So what’s this supposed to prove?”   
Peter shrugged “You like breaking things I guess. If you want to keep breaking things without worrying about constantly having others breathing down your neck, I’d recommend spending some more time in Neverland.”   
Leech put a hand on Bert's shoulder, shaking it slightly “Yeah! Peter put it better than I could, what did I tell ya? We can get you a bed and food and as much shit to fuck up as you want.” Bert could just feel a big toothy grin was sitting behind the dark mask. He rolled the bat in his hand, something in the back of his mind was still uncomfortably shifting, but he couldn’t place it.   
Bert looked over at Peter “I guess I could hang out a little bit longer.” Peter just gave him a thin wry grin, leaning back in the chair and picking his book up. Leech gave Bert a rougher shake, laughing.   
“Alrighty sticks, you’re with me then. We gotta get you a better name though. You mighta already figured it but we use nicknames around here.” She started dragging him again, always in a hurry to get somewhere. Always excited to show him the next thing about Neverland. Bert was helplessly dragged along again, giving Peter one last glance before disappearing out the library door.   
“What? Nicknames? I woulda never figured with such normal names like Leech” Bert responded, dripping with sarcasm.   
“Hey, none of that sass. What kinda animal do you like? Roaches? Maybe rats? You seem really scruffy, a rat my do. Oh, but you got all that hair, sticking everywhere. If you were a bit... Wider, I’d think you’d be a Bear!” Leech led them towards a scrappy building, it looked very… homemade. It was basically held up by a tree that ran up near the side of it, scrap hanging off by loose nails and rope.   
“Roach? Rat? Bear? Those all… kinda suck. Besides don’t I need a gas mask that matches those? How do you even make something like that.”   
“Oh, the gas mask is something you gotta figure out by yourself buddy. Everyone makes their own when we go on our raids. Keeps em unique, but also keeps its function. Which I am sure you can figure isn’t for filtering out gas…”  
“It’s for hiding your expression. Keeping you… ambiguous?”   
“Yes-siree! Ding ding ding, you’re smarter than you look ya know?” Leech chimed with a rather upbeat tone, Bert was giving her a light grimace. She stole a glance at him, snorting, “oh lighten up.”  
“I am plenty light, remember? You told me all about how light I was earlier.” Bert couldn’t help getting a big smirk on his face  
“Oooo, you really are a smart ass aren’t ya? Maybe Rat is a good nickname with a smile like that.” she wagged a finger at him, leaning against the door of the scraphouse and pushing it open with her back, “well welcome to smart ass central. Hope you can keep up, Rat.”   
She pulled up her mask slightly, revealing what Bert had suspected, a goofy-ass grin. She slipped off into the scrap house, Bert fumbling his way inside, peeling his eyes off Leech to look at the interior.   
There were ropes hanging from a tree branch that stretched over the ceiling. It was probably the most stable thing in the whole place… hanging by the rope anywhere else might just bring the roof down. The rope was notched for easier climbing and it seemed there were three levels. The first level was the largest with some tables set out with cards and what looked like appliances for a kitchen were just sitting around. Bert didn’t see anyone, however… where did Leech even slip off to? Bert wandered towards a rickety door that looked like it was ripped off somewhere else hinges and then just screwed on in here. He opens it with a long loud squeak, looking into the room, there were beds stacked on top of each other along with the whole room. It reminded him of the Home except… more… more. Instead of like 4 beds there seemed to be at least 6. Bert saw Leech hunched over a footlocker, the sound of metal clanking against metal.   
Suddenly someone bumped into Bert “Woah! Get outta the way new meat!” Bert scrambled away, several masked kids seemingly trying to pull a bed through the doorway   
“Er… a bed?” Bert eyed up the new kid who was leading the front of the bed into the room. He wasn’t that much bigger than Bert, a really angular mask on his face. It was actually really well crafted, and more than that, well kept. The white painted looked freshly applied, and the pointed ears seemed to be made out of leather. Bert wracked his brain to try and figure what his mask was. The snout wasn’t as defined as Hounds but it was clearly some sort of four-legged animal of that sort…  
Hound and Fly were on the other side of the bed, carrying each end as they made it parallel with the ground once it was past the door frame. Hound seemed to perk up when he saw Bert “You like it? This one’s for you!”   
Bert wasn’t sure what to say, was that what Leech meant when she asked them to set a new bunk? Leech had gotten behind him without him noticing, he was getting surprised on all fronts when she gave him a slap on the back “Hehe, I don’t have any extra blankets so you and me might have to make a... Uh, shopping run? Steal it. We need to steal bedding.” her mask was no longer on, her face was flushed red from being under the mask all day. She had a round face full of freckles. Bert hadn’t really noticed her hair before, parted all over to one side, a sorta dark black mixed with a sickly green like she tried to dye it but didn’t have the right material for it, or like it had been dyed a while ago but the roots had mostly grown back in. Bert gave her the weirdest look, blinking a few times. He KNEW this was Leech, and to be honest she looked about what he expected but actually seeing her face took him back a bit. Leech’s smile faded and she stuffed her hand in his face, “no gawking!”   
Bert’s hands flailed a little while Hound and Fly set down the bed with the help of the one Bert still didn’t get the name of. The nameless one wiped his brow, pulling the mask off and letting out a gasp, “So damn hot today.” he had an angular face, and was probably about as old as Fly. His face was smooth and his nose seemed a bit pointed. He had pulled back brown hair. Hound and Fly were soon to pull their masks off as well. Bert slowly started to understand, this was their safe place. Once they were here they could drop the masks all they wanted. I mean, Bert wasn’t sure what he expected… The thought of them sleeping in the masks was kind of ridiculous.   
Bert gave Leech a shove off him while she let out short cackles, he couldn’t help having a smile on his face as well. This wasn’t like in the Home where it was a bad kinda ‘Imma push you around’. Leech was fun, Bert could see why the other saw her as the leader. “Alright, boys play nice I am gonna grab a soda” Leech slipped past Bert out the door into the main floor. Bert glanced over at the other boys, getting a good look at Hound and Fly now.   
Fly had sunken eyes with a very polite but reserved smile on his face, and he didn’t have much hair to speak of. He must shave it frequently. Hound, on the other hand, had the weirdest case of mask hair where it was all matted down against his skull till towards the bottom, where it shot out in random directions and curled up. His face put Leech to shame in terms of freckle count. Bert shuffled a little in place “So uh… you. You guys uh. You have a few extra beds?”   
Fly made a dismissive hand motion “That’s Dove and Goat, they’re out of town right now doing some work for Peter”   
Hound put a finger to his lips “Top secret.”   
Bert glanced at the one he still didn’t know the name of in the back who was rummaging through his own footlocker, face beet red from being out in the sun with the mask on “So uh, what’s your name?”   
His eyes shot up from the footlocker to look at Bert, he gave a thin smile “Fox, I am number two around here. So I was the one who had to sit and listen while Leech went on and on about the new kid she found. I am sure she hasn’t really told you about the rules around here but that’s fine. That’s why she has me. Ya know, for all the things she forgets.” Bert could see why he made a good second. He had something behind his eyes that said he had been here a while, long enough to not be scared to play enforcer. Some part of it reminded Bert of the boys back at the Home but somehow he wasn’t scared of them… Maybe he was from a similar situation as Bert because he felt a strange, understanding. In fact, the more he looked between the other boys the more he felt an underlying sense of understanding.  
Fox stood up from his footlocker, approaching Bert “Rule 1, your group isn’t your family. You don’t have to like everybody but it helps. Rule 2, the group isn’t your family, but we do help each other without exception if I find out you’re responsible for anyone coming to harm it’s your ass. Rule 3, first come first serve. If you find something cool, it’s yours. Rule 4, you listen to me, Leech, or Peter. It’s not as much of a rule as it is a recommendation. Yet if we are going as far as to tell you something, you should probably listen. Rule 5, you don’t abandon your group. Any questions, uhh…” he makes a gesture for Bert to help him finish   
“I am B...I am, Rat. Yeah, I am Rat.” Bert stuck out his hand to shake with Fox, he took the hand with a slight smile. He seemed slightly relieved to hear them using their new name.   
“Great, usually new members are a little… apprehensive, about rules. Which makes sense, because we’re all here due to uh… issues with authority.” he gave Bert’s hand a solid squeeze before letting go, the other hand clasping his shoulder, “so, you play Poker?”


	3. HOTEL HEIST

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bert and Leech risk their lives for pillows

Bert’s eyed the giant machine Leech had set down near the fridge. He hadn’t even asked what that was about yet, the tubes leading out of it were ominous as hell but... He had a bad feeling he would get acquainted with its use shortly at one point or another. A card slid into Bert peripheral view as he returned his attention to the poker game, pulling his hand off the table and giving it an ugly look. Yeah, this was going to be a bad round for him. At least he wasn’t the only one unable to protect his face in this game. Bert picked up on an unspoken poker rule here, no masks at the table. Bert glanced at Hound, he had a tightly wound expression and Fly seemed pretty grim as well. The only person he never seemed able to get a read on was Fox. He was just so damn stoic, the only time he gave away anything was when he already won. They didn’t use real caps though, they seemed to prefer playing for favors and less… measurable things of value. So far, Hound owed Fox a yo-yo and a back massage while Fly was down a whole pillow. Bert had scooped early in most rounds so the most he owed was a soda whenever Fox felt like asking for it.   
Leech plopped down in an opposing seat, placing her Nuka Cola bottle against the table. She pressed where the cap met the bottle into the table lip and then bashed on the top of it. The thing popped open with a CrshhHHhh as the soda rose towards the top of the bottle and she quickly caught it with her mouth.   
“Do you want in on this next round Leech?” Fox asked, staring between her and his hand, “I am gonna raise with Fly’s pillow by the way.” and then the turn order rolled over to Bert.   
With a scowl, Bert tossed his cards “Folding. What the hell is the ante this round anyways?” Fox shrugged looking over at the two others “I’d say… how about the ante is a free pick of the next raid? So you get what you get, and then the winner of this round gets a pick of one item from the bunch.” the others seemed reluctant but slowly began to agree with him on the ante.   
“Call! Putting my pillow on the line now!” Hound declared, practically crumpling the cards in his hands with how roughly he was holding them. He was way in over his head, and terrible at poker. He was probably the most reckless and unpredictable better out of all of them.   
“Call, I want my fucking pillow back. I am gonna put a meal on the line. If you win, you get a meal outta me. That should be about even to the pillow, right?” Fly gave Fox a dirty, but playful look   
“So if I win it’s dinner with the Fly? Pft. Sure, that’s even.”   
Needless to say, Fly owed Fox dinner and Hound was sleeping without a pillow, and the conversation devolved quickly into name-calling and accusations of cheating as the others scrambled towards Fox to check his sleeves. When the others made the lunge for him Fox quickly darted away laughing. Bert kept his rear in his seat however, watching this unfold with a pretty giddy look of bemusement. Is this what brothers did? I mean, the rule said they aren’t family but that felt a bit like bullshit. Bert side-eyed Leech who wasn’t taking any steps to defuse the situation, letting out a loud belly laugh when Fly tackled Fox to the ground.   
“Is it always like this?” Bert gestured to the brawl, placing his head in his hands and looking at Leech who took another sip of her soda   
“Yeah, pretty awesome right? Usually, it’s a bit more crowded with Dove and Goat around but they typically hang out on the upper floors. Goat gets too competitive to play poker and Dove doesn’t like gambling. She usually sticks to this homemade computer she’s been working on. In fact, she’d like a look at that doo-hickey on your hip right there.” she made a general gesture in his direction   
Bert lifted up his music player he had gotten from Joe Joseph from way back when “This thing? It can’t be that special, but if she wants a look at it that’s fine with me. The thing used to have a screen by the looks of it but… It doesn’t work now. Just plays music, but uh… I hope this Dove doesn’t have plans on scrapping it because I’ll knock her dick into the dirt.” he gave her a big grin, setting the music player back down   
“Dove’s a push over, they might gripe about it if you play keep-away with it, but she won’t be able to do much.” she took another sip of the cola, letting out a satisfied sigh, “ever had Nuka-Cola?”   
“I’ve found a fucking lot of empty bottles with no caps on them, so can’t say I really have. It’s just fizzy water ain't it?”   
“WHAT! No dumbass! HEY! Guys! Stop wrestling you’re in the way of the kitchen, Rat needs to grab sodas!” She gave Bert an expectant look at Hound and Fox slowly untangled with Fly scooted out of the way   
“Grab me one too Rat” Fox mentioned, pulling his hair back and fixing it. It looked like Hound had given him a nasty noogie. Bert nodded and stepped past them, opening the fridge and being hit by a cool breeze. Bert had seen a fridge before at the home, but this one was significantly different. For one, it was shitty. For two, it was stocked to the brim with sweets and soda. Bert wasn’t sure how you could even accumulate this much soda in one area. How much was this all worth he wondered? He reached in and grabbed two cool bottles. He walked back towards the table, kicking the fridge door shut with his foot. He passed the bottle to Fox and took his own back to the table.   
“Trust me, nothing tastes better than a Nuka Cola.” Leech assured Bert as he twisted the cap off with some effort. He tilted his head back and took a sip from the bottle. His eyes went wide.   
“HOLY SHIT!”   
The rest of the evening was a weird blur of Bert showing off his music holotapes, some terrible dancing and a lot of laughing. Bert wasn’t sure if he ever laughed that much before in his whole life. One thing went to another thing seamlessly without much thought, and suddenly it was dark out. Where had the time gone? Who cared? The only thing really concerning to Bert right now was the exhaustion slowly coming over him. He leaned back in his chair, letting out a long and loud yawn.   
“You tired Rat?” Leech gave him a smug look  
“What? No. Piss off I can go on for another THREE days if I wanted.”   
“Wouldn’t recommend that, you’ve got a big day tomorrow remember? Out stealing your bedding with the boss. I hope you like nothing but mattress tonight though… Me, however, I have two whole pillows extra now so maybe you can borrow one.” Fox gives Bert a wink, Hound giving him a punch on the shoulder, “Ahaha don’t be a sore loser Hound.”   
Hound did nothing but fume, looking over at Fly “He can’t really keep our pillows can he?” he waited for Fly to respond, but Fly had his head in his hand and was slowly dozing off. Hound let out a really strange noise that was like the love child of a whine and a grunt. Fox reached across the table and knocked the elbow out from under Fly and he nearly dropped onto the table, letting out an ‘AH’ and catching himself   
“Dammit… I am going to bed now.” Fly slowly lifted himself up from the table, groggily shuffling off towards the bunks   
“Right, well I think it’s about time we all turned in. You’ll just have to deal Hound.” Fox ruffled Hounds hair, who smacked away at his hand but seemed to still agree with going to bed. Hound soon followed Fox to the bunks, and it was just Leech and Bert.   
“So are you heading to bed now?” Bert look over at Leech who was staring at the door   
“Nah, Goat and Dove might be coming back today.. So I am gonna wait for them. You head to bed though, you better keep up tomorrow or I might just have to leave you in the dirt this time.” she shot him finger guns, giving a wild grin.   
Bert stood from his seat, giving her a bemused look “Alrighty then Leech. Whatever you say, I think you’ll find I am a lot faster than you’ll be expecting.” Bert slipped off into the bunk, Fox was near Flys bunk, crouching down. He seemed to be saying something but Bert couldn’t make it out. He’s not sure if he wanted to hear what had been said, because Fly slammed his hand against hounds face, pushing him away. Fox let out a short snort and laugh, sliding off to his bed and flopping onto two pillows. He noticed Bert, pointing silently over to his bed where there was a pillow on it. Bert nodded, walking over and just collapsing onto the bed. Ah… soft. Well, it wasn’t soft. In fact, it was kinda uncomfortable, but that made it comfortable in a weird way. Being uncomfortable was Bert’s comfort zone.   
Bert felt himself lightly shaking, his eyes fluttering open with some difficulty as he squinted at the figure standing over him. It seemed to be Fly, his mask was back on his head. Bert started to get up out of bed, running a hand over his face and letting out a low sigh through his nose. Fly didn’t think it necessary to say much. Once Bert had sat up he stood from his crouched position and started heading out through to the main floor. Bert wiped his eyes and then pulled himself out of bed, stepping into the main room while yawning. His hair was as every bit of a mess as it always was  
“Howdy Rat. You best not be falling asleep on me already! I am fresh and ready to get em.” Leech had her mask sitting on top of her head, a small bottle cap-shaped red mark on her cheek.   
“Did you fall asleep out here on the table?” Bert squinted at her, rubbing the dark marks under his eyes with his pinky  
“Nope! Shut the fuck up!” She gave a big cheeky smile, pulling the mask over her head and adjusting it.   
Bert gave a quick look around, he didn’t see any unfamiliar faces so he could only assume Dove and Goat weren’t here still. She probably wouldn’t have passed out on the table if they did. Bert knocked his shoes on the floor a little to get some blood flowing in him. He put his hands on his back and leaned up against them, a resounding series of bones cracking as he did so, “Agh...Nice. Right, I am ready when you are.”   
Fox threw a loose hand into the air “Don’t get yourselves in trouble, see you soon.”   
Leech threw Fox a thumbs up back, turning towards the door and pushing it open. The morning was hot and dry. Bert kept his hand to his brow the whole walk out of town, sticking behind Leech. He wasn’t exactly sure where they planned on stealing exactly.   
“So, you mind telling me the whole uh... Stealing bedding plan?” Bert jogged up to close the gap between him and Leech   
“Well we can’t steal from town, that’s bad public relations. So you and me are gonna be taking a bit of a ride. Yet we can’t take a big honkin' four-wheeler.” She walked up to a shack that sat on the outside of town, opening up the door and stepping inside of it. Bert furrowed his brow, Leech soon coming back out with two bikes in two. They had faded and chipped paint, looking like they spent a couple of decades doing nothing but sitting in the sun. Attached to the back was a thick blocky motor looking thing, “these here are our custom made motorcycles. Hehe. Man, the Brotherhood would lose their shit if they saw half the stuff we keep in this town.”   
“Brotherhood?” Bert’s brow quirked up, “Who the hell's the brotherhood?”  
“Bunch of suited stiffs who steal technology from towns. They came in and just did a clean wipe of all tech in this area. They didn’t touch the scrap, just took things worth taking. Lucky for us I guess because we’ve been able to make something out of the stuff they disregarded as trash. Well, we probably couldn’t without Peter. He used to be one but he kinda… just dropped off the map for them. Pretty sure Peter aint his real name but whatever. Peter is Peter to me.”   
“Neat...I guess. So Peters a techie type?”   
“You could say that, he isn’t exactly a techie but he knows a thing or two about building old pre-war stuff like AC or fridges. Or of course our lovely little dirt bikes here. They ain't the fastest in the world but they sure as hell beat pedaling.” she gave the modified bike a few pats on the seat.  
Riding the bike was a bit of a strange process. Since it was a pedal and chain bike modified with a motor it didn’t exactly have a ‘go’ button. Leech took a good 10 minutes showing him the ins and outs of getting the thing to really go. The motor only really started going when you started pedaling. Yet you don’t have the pedal as frequently as a normal bike. You pedal a little, the motor goes off and then you coast on the speed that it gives you. Then when the bike starts to sputter you pedal again and repeat. Bert nodded along with her explanation and got on the extra bike. He sat on it, pulled his feet up and started to pedal. He went, went, wobbled, fell right into the dirt when the motor started up, skidding against the ground.   
Leech ran up to help Bert up “Rat! Jeezus fuckin hell, have you ever ridden a bike before?” she pulled him up to his feet and started ushering him off, “you were looking like a fish on land out there.”   
“I mean, people always talk about it like it’s super easy-”   
“Oh my god you really have never ridden a bike before.”   
“I mean. No, not really.” Bert shrugged and Leech slapped her hand against her forehead, letting out a long sigh  
“You shoulda said so.” she picks the bike up, dusting off the seat and sitting down on it, “alright stand on these metal bars that stick out near the wheels alright?”  
Bert gave a weird look as he put his hands on her shoulders to keep himself balanced as he stepped over and stood on the metal bars slightly elevated. “This seems like it’s kinda inconvenient.”  
“For you maybe, your legs are gonna feel like shit by the time we get there but again it does beat walking. So… You and I are gonna have to talk about bike riding lessons after this.”   
“Hm… Sure. I mean. Yeah, I’d like that.” and with that, the bike suddenly started to lurch forward, Leech’s feet working the pedals a little harder than she usually would since she has one whole extra Bert’s worth of weight on the back wheel.   
They zoomed across the plains, kicking up dirt behind their wheel as Neverland disappeared behind them. It was nothing but plains for a good 10 minutes, but a hard concrete sight came up ahead, it was what seemed to be a giant concrete pathway that ramped up into a bridge.  
“That’s a highway! If we take that we’ll get right to where we’re going.” Leech shouted behind at Bert. She slid the bike through a break in the concrete barriers, turning the bike up towards the ramp and pedaling a bit extra to keep it going uphill.   
Many parts of the highway were collapsed or eroded away, but it seemed as though someone went over those parts of the road with sheets of metal. Entire sections of the elevated road were made up of sheet metal as well. The road eventually seemed to be turning into a partially leveled city. The only building that looked like it was still anywhere near standing was a hotel building, but even that had another building leaning up against its side... It was a strangely melancholic scene with the hotel building looking over the rubble. Leech turned off the highway and back into the dirt, riding towards a building that only the top half had toppled in on. The hotel disappeared behind the building. They rode up right next to the building, coming to a slow halt. Bert looked around at the building in front of them, it didn’t look like much. It certainly didn’t look alive.   
“So what’s the big deal? Why are we stopping here?”  
“Get outta the Hotel's sight. If they didn’t already see us coming they definitely would if we kept taking the highway.”  
“The Hotel's sight? That building is what we’re stealing from?”  
“Yeah, the sniper that sits on top of it is really sharp but he doesn’t just shoot people who come nearby. He’s more of a scout than a killer. It helps that the sniper is… well, shitty. ”  
“You seem to know this place well…?”  
“It’s been on Peters bucket list so we’ve made a few passes. This is the first time we’re doing any thieving though so lucky you!” she gave him a big grin. She reached into her satchel at her hip, pulling out binoculars and passing them to Bert, “can you see which way he’s looking? It changes which way we approach from.”  
Bert took the binoculars and shuffled towards the edge of the building they were hiding behind, leaning just a tad over and looking for the glint of sun on the sniper lens. He didn’t see any, pulling the binoculars up to his face and fully leaning out to check the top of the hotel. There was a single man walking along the top from the side closest to them to the far side of the hotel. If he had seen them, he wasn’t looking anymore. Bert darted back behind cover, tossing the binoculars to Leech   
“So?” she asked expectantly, putting the binoculars away   
“He’s going to the side opposite of us. So we’re in the clear for now.”   
“Follow me then, I know a good way in.” She motioned for him to follow, darting past Bert and running down the sidewalk. Ducking behind a pile of rubble. Bert scampered behind her, dropping down next to her.  
“Mine cluing me in as to where this is?”  
“We’re gonna climb this rubble into the building it’s from and get inside here. This building collapsed up against the hotel so it’s basically a burrow right into its lower section. We don’t need to get high we just need to get in at all.” She started to clamber up the rubble, rocks, and pebbles shifting and moving as she did so. She was quick about it as to not disrupt the pile too much, grabbing onto a metal rebar that stuck out from the concrete floor and pulling herself up into the building, “Come on!”  
Bert scrambled up the pile, Leech offered a hand to help him up. He took it and pulled himself up onto the floor with her, “Right, isn’t it a little dangerous to climb around on mid-collapsed buildings? I am not expert so. Just asking.”   
“Of course it isn’t, but nothing we’re doing is safe so… fuck it, come on. Oh, also. Don’t get caught. I don’t have my backpack on me so we can’t really get into a big fight.” she motioned towards her back   
“Oh, right. You aren’t wearing that big thing right now, are you? What the hell is that thing even?”  
She paused, the expressionless mask staring at him. She raised a finger to her filter, “Secret.”   
“Oh joy.” he sighed, looking around, spotting a stairwell door, “well if we wanna cross to the hotel we still need to get a little higher, right?” Bert stepped past Leech towards the stairwell, his feet crunching against a pile of shattered glass.  
“Right, say... Rat, where are you from? Or is that a touchy subject?” She stepped into the stairwell behind him. The stairs weren’t in the worst condition, but the handrail had fallen off at some point, which was a pain since the steps were fairly steep.   
“Where I am from? I um.. I don’t know the town name.”   
“Your parents never told you?”  
“Orphan.”  
“...Oh, haha. Yeah.” Leech went quiet, Bert didn’t really feel like talking about it much beyond that but he didn’t enjoy making her feel bad. He stewed on it for a bit before trying to lighten the mood   
“So, Leeches huh? You like them as like… an animal? You know. Yeah.” Bert pushed open the door at the top, but it only opened halfway because of the rubble. He squeezed between the door and the door frame to pop out onto the other side.  
“Oh, uh. Yeah? I keep some leeches in the library with Peter. I mean, I kinda latched onto them out of spite. It’s what my parents used to call me before I found my way to Neverland.” She squeezed into the doorway, letting out a huff as she struggled to squeeze through, “fuck, Rat, how did you fit?”   
Bert grabbed onto her shoulder, giving her a tug until she slid out “I am a stick, remember? Heh, so what’s it like keeping leeches?”   
“A bit of a bother since they need feeding. They’re really big too so usually it’s a whole lotta blood needed.”   
Bert’s face was an empty smile that thinly masked concern because just how BIG could the leeches be? Bert had heard of leeches before. Some rambling drunk would tell him about how when he was young him and his brother would run through a swamp, and come out with little squirming leeches all over their feet. Bert had no clue why they would ever want to do that, and the old bastard would pass out before ever finishing any stories.   
“Oh come on don’t give me that look. They’re sweet when they’re fed. They also make a good uhm… tool, for Peter.”   
“You really take to this Peter guy.”   
“How couldn’t I? I mean where would I be without Neverland? I’d probably look a lot like you, in the dirt drying out in the sun, ya know?” she shrugged, looking over towards the hole in the wall where the building tilted into the other one. She shuffled to the ledge, sat on it and then dropped down.   
“Huh. I guess, he doesn’t seem like...a bad guy.” Bert grimaced to himself. Something still felt wrong, but whatever it was that was wrong was still wordless to him. It was his gut, really. He couldn’t ever figure out what the fuck his gut was on about when it actually mattered. Bert sat on the edge and then dropped down next to Leech, “oof… Long drop.”   
“Now comes the hard part. Try avoiding accidentally walking through a window and dropping straight through. I know it doesn’t sound hard but you seem like the spacey type.” She gave him a shoulder punch, starting ahead of him in the trek up the sloped building.   
“Aw come on I am not stupid..” Berts eyes dropped to his feet to watch where he was stepping as he follows behind Leech, “but uh, speaking of past stuff. What’s your name? You know mine so it aint real fair you got off scot-free just being ‘Leech’.”   
She glanced back at him, dark mask goggles giving him a blank stare before she responded “Mhm, nah. Just Leech. Sorry Robert Rat but you don’t get nothing out of me like that unless you buy me dinner first.”   
“Tsk, like I have the caps for that…” Bert blew some hair out of his eyes, still carefully watching his step as they got closer to the hotel.   
“Hehe, maybe get better at poker and you can play with the adults. They’re the ones using caps for gambling at the bar.”   
“Eh, maybe. My lucks always been really rotten, but at least I know when to fold, unlike Fly.”   
“You think that was pride coming from Fly?” She let out a snort, coming to a window and bending down over it, opening it carefully by reaching from the bottom and then pushing up on it. It moved about an inch before stopping and refusing to budge, “crap…”   
“Uhm.. yes? I guess.”   
She picked up a big rubble rock and dropped it through the window, “Alright, hehe…”   
“...Ok.” Bert gave her a flat deadpanned look, but he still had a small smirk. He couldn’t help it. Her fun nature was too damn infectious even when he was absolutely confused and out of it in the conversation   
“Alright, hop through, the window leads to a hotel room but minds the glass, please. Don’t go cutting your bee-hind up.” She dropped through the window, the sound of wood splitting rung out. Bert bent down looking through the window   
“Holy shit what happened Leech?”   
“Nothing, bed frame broke when I fell on it. I am gonna clear some of this junk off before you drop down so wait a sec.” Leech grabbed the rubble she dropped through the window and set it down on the floor. She then picked the whole bed up and shook the glass off to the other side   
“Hey quick fucking question Leech before I drop down there. How do we plan on leaving if we had to drop in to get here?”   
She paused, looking up at him with the blank expressionless mask “huh… Nearly forgot about that part.” She rummaged around in her satchel, pulling out a bunch of rope and then swinging it side to side in her hand, “Catch!” she then tossed the length up at Bert as it unfurled in the air.  
Bert grabbed the end of it, letting out a yelp as he nearly lost his balance and fell into the room. “Okay now what?”  
“Tie it to something stationary nearby. Is there any exposed rebar?”   
Bert looked around, pulling the rope along with him. The floor above them’s floor had fallen away, leaving some exposed rebar. Bert tied the rope around it, trailing it down the window. He gave it a few good tugs to make sure it was secure and then he took the rope down the broken window and onto the bed “Easy.”   
“Right, stick close. We’re in the hornet's nest now, I doubt any of the town guards will like us snooping around the halls. They’re cramped halls too so hiding is kinda a pain in the ass.”  
“So the plans to break into an empty room as soon as possible?”  
“Yep…” She crept over to the door, the hotel room was clearly unkempt. It was moldy, dark, and smelled like an abandoned home with a hint of a rat rotting somewhere. Leech pushed the door open, a low creak crawling out from the doorframe. She reached into her satchel and pulled out a small piece of plastic no bigger than the palm of her hand. She popped it open, revealing a small pocket mirror with a hairline crack running down it. She tilted the mirror back and forth near the door frame, eyeing it carefully.  
“Neat trick…” Bert commented, glancing at the mirror as well  
“Yeah, cool right? Nothing more important than seeing them before they see you. We’re in the clear, this hall seems nothing short of decrepit. Maybe the adjacent one is in better repair? I do see some light at the end of the hall. Let’s check it out.” She pushed the door further open, sneaking out, crouched low to the ground. Bert followed behind her, hunched down as well. The two of them crept towards the end of the hall. The hall was unlit, giving the room this blue look, contrasted by a warm orange light at the very end of the hall that just barely mixed into the part of the hotel they were in. When they finally got to the corner, Leech put her mirror out again, giving it a good look over before suddenly jerking her hand back. She put a single finger up towards Bert, a signal to stay quiet. Bert inhaled sharply, holding his breath as he waited for them to give a signal that they were good.   
A single pair of footsteps started to inch closer to the pair, growing louder and louder till it felt like it was just around the corner. The footsteps stopped, there was a sound of ruffling and then a metallic clink. A thin stream of smoke shot out from around the corner as the unseen figure breathed out with a sigh.   
“JULIAN! No smoking on the job you can’t wait ten minutes till break?” A voice called out from the end of the hall. The feet shifted and ‘Julian’ let out a low growl, an unfinished cigarette flying out from around the corner into the dingy moldy hotel carpet   
“Yeah, whatever.” The footsteps started to move away, and Bert slowly breathed out, lips pursed together as to let it out in a slow thin stream of air. Leech put the mirror around the corner again and waited before nudging Bert   
“Alright, we’re good. The guards change out in 10 minutes. The guardhouse is on the level below. So we need to move now before the second set of guards come up here to change out. Unless you want to wait till they get here and the others leave. Either which way I just don’t want to be caught while they’re changing.”   
“I’d prefer now, longer we’re here the more likely we’re gonna get caught. As much fun as it would be to run for my life with you.”   
“I doubt it would be your life, more like… hotel prison, and beatings. So, you’d still be alive!”   
“Your optimism is wonderfully illuminating.” he rolled his eyes, stepping past Leech towards the lit hallway. The hall went down to the other end of the building, with a hall between the two parallel halls. Creating a Y-like formation. Leech pushed the mirror into Bert's hand as he passed by her   
“Check that middle hall, if nobody's there pass this back and I’ll cross over.”  
“Why are you making me do it?”  
“I feel like it, besides you’ll need to get good with things like that. What, you can’t handle a pocket mirror?” Bert hates that he can’t see her face, but he still just KNOWS she’s giving him the biggest smuggest shit-eating grin humanly possible.   
There he was, smiling right back before turning away and waving a hand at her general direction as he approached the middle hall “Shaddup.”  
Bert stuck to the corner, flipping the mirror open and slowly pushing it past the corner, keeping it low to the ground so it wasn’t noticeable. He tilted it up and down to try and get a full look at the hall. It wasn’t that hard to get a good look since the halls were so narrow and claustrophobic. He turned and gave Leech a thumbs up. She nodded and quickly, while still low to the ground, power crouch walked across the hall towards the other side of the hotel floor.   
Bert double-checked the hall, and then crossed as well, passing the mirror back to her so she could check this hall. She backed up a little from the corner, putting the mirror away, “Two guards, probably the guys from before. It is just two though, so it shouldn’t be hard to handle. Right. I am going to knock on the wall. At least one of them is gonna come to check it out, I am gonna grab him and I want you to hit him in the head with your bat.”  
Bert’s knuckles seized up a little as he reached behind his back for the bat, “Are you.. Sure about that?”   
“Positive, he won't see it coming. I’ll give him a rough tug to the floor and you just swing, ok? The other guard is gonna panic and go for his radio and I am gonna use that to take him down. They don’t have a lot of guns for the guards here since the Brotherhood rolled through. I saw when I checked, nothing but makeshift stun batons.”   
Bert felt a weird reluctance… These guys were probably assholes though. I mean they were guards. Bert can’t think of a single guard he’s ever met that wasn’t a stuck up asshole. He readied the bat, nodding to Leech “Alright….”  
Leech nodded back, lifting her fist and then rapping it against the wall, there was a sound of surprised feet shuffling to face their direction.   
“Jackson? Is that you?” a single pair of footsteps started to approach them, and a guard's foot slowly rounded the corner. It all happened so slowly, but it was over in an instance. The guard's eyes fell on Leech and Bert, Leech lunged for his collar, ripping him down to the floor as he tumbled down in front of Bert. He looked up at Bert in surprise and fear. Bert wasn’t sure if he hesitated for a second or for a week. However long it was, it wasn’t long enough for the guard to do anything before the bat came down on his head. Bert’s head snapped towards where Leech was, but all he heard was the sound of another body hitting the floor. She wasn’t kidding, she was fast as hell. Bert looked back down at the guard, he wasn’t getting up anytime soon. Bert heard a hotel room door start to creak open, his eyes went wide as he reached for the guard's helmet, slapping it on his head and approaching the door opening with his bat readied.   
There was a low yelp as the door slammed back shut. Leech scurried back over to Bert, a little out of breath, “Shit one of the tenants saw you?” she gave his helmet a short look over, “well, that ain't a mask but it’ll do for now. We need to move faster, that guy is calling the front desk probably. We got about 5 minutes before we get flooded with guards. Leech, walked up to the door, reared back and then slammed her shoulder into it. She Let out a pained gasp as the door held firm, she snatched the bat from Bert before he could react and slammed it over the door handle. A gross mix of wood splintering and metal on metal clashing together assaulted their ears at the door handle fell out from the door. Bert took the chance to slam his small frame into the door, the door giving away. There was a mousey man standing near a nightstand with a phone in hand. He nearly jumped out of his skin when he saw them, dropping the phone and putting his hands into the air  
“I have no money! Nothing!” His entire thin figure trembled, watching as Leech ignored him, running to the hotel bed and ripping the blanket off of it and tossing the pillow to Bert, who didn’t hesitate to start running back to the rope they came in on. Bert could hear Leech Running behind him, dragging the blanket over her shoulder. Bert threw the pillow through the window up top and Leech shut the door behind them. There was a thunderous sound of footsteps coming onto the floor. Bert started to pull himself up the rope, lifting himself to the other building with a HYUP and reaching down to take the blanket, pulling it up and then watching as Leech scurried up the rope. The door to the hotel room flung open as a guard filed in, screaming out something and pointing at Leech. Bert grabbed Leech by the coat, trying to help but dragging them up to the building. The guard growled, others piling in behind him as he tried to climb the rope behind him. Leech quickly pulled out something that glinted slightly and suddenly the guards were falling on top of each other and the rope had been cut.   
“Good thinking” Bert nodded to himself, grabbing the pillow and blanket in one bundle and starting to run off from the window, Leech not far behind.  
“Haha! Hell yeah, Rat that was awesome! Did you see that guy in the hotel room? Shaking like a LEAF!” she laughed hysterically. Running down the building was much faster than the way up. Bert's feet skidded against the cement as he slowed to a halt, looking up at the ledge from where they first dropped. Leech skid up next to him, taking the bundle and throwing it up there, “we should still hurry. It won't take them long to get here.” she squatted down, patting her knee and beckoning Bert over. Bert stepped on her knee and she then lifted him up to the ledge where he pulled himself up.  
“Alright take my hand, and back there with the uh, other guard. You really know how to fuckin’ move.” he offered his hand to Leech. She jumped up to take it, grabbing onto a piece of jutting out rebar to help pull herself up to Bert.   
“Ah, well. I am not the leader just for my looks.” she patted herself down, some dust still clinging to her pants where Bert stepped off her. They both lightly jogged back to the stairwell they came up here in. The stairs were too steep to run down without risking getting hurt, and it would slow them down worse if they sprained something.   
“Good to know there isn’t a bias towards a good face. I was starting to think that might be the case with Fox.” Bert snorted, taking a few deep breaths as they jumped onto the rubble pile outside, sliding down it and making their way to the bike. There was the sound of some shouting nearby, “erm- shit okay chit chat when we aren’t about to get our dicks knocked into the dirt.”   
“Right! Hold onto the goods. Press them up against my bike while you stand on the back and we won't lose them. Just don't shove me or anything.” Leech picked up the dirt bike, sitting on it. Bert hoped on behind her, positioning the blanket and pillow like she said. The dirt bike revved to life and Leech began to pedal it more than Bert had seen yet. Now they were REALLY flying!   
Suddenly a gunshot rang out, and a small pile of dirt kicked up from the earth, spraying Bert. He let out a gasp, head swiveling around to look at the hotel, it must’ve been the sniper. “Holy shit Leech I hope you’re right about that sniper rifle being a piece of shit!” Leech didn’t respond, instead of starting to swerve the bike left to right, pedaling just as hard. They hit pavement again, back on the highway and swerving over around and through scrapped husks of old pre-war cars. The thud of the wheels bouncing on the sheet metal rung out louder than it had before, another sniper shot ringing out and slamming into a nearby car with a loud PTWING.   
The hotel got smaller and smaller in the distance as Leech continued putting all her effort into moving as fast and as far as they could. Bert gave her a few taps on the shoulder “Leech, LEECH! I think we’re in the clear. You can take a break already.” she stopped pedalling, breathing deeply and heavily  
“Fuck, Rat… we’re on a straight shot right now could you take my mask off?” Bert hesitated but obliged, reaching under her chin and pulling the mask up off her face. Once it was off she let out a loud gasp. Her face was bright red and her brow was coated in sweat, “this attire really isn’t suited for high speed chases...Hold onto that for me please.”   
Bert put the mask on top of the blanket, watching it carefully to make sure it didn’t suddenly go flying. They were coasting along the cement with the sun high above them in the sky, the quiet whirl of the wheels on the road taking over the conversation, occasionally broken up by another deep breath from Leech.   
“You gonna be alright?”  
Leech let out a short laugh “Aha, yeah. Yeah! Honestly, I am just coming down from the adrenaline high. You really let that guard back there have it! It was good work. Good work…” she trailed off, turning the bike slowly towards an opening in the barriers. When they hit the dirt again she pedaled some to give them some more mileage.   
“Yeah it was,uh.. It felt a little weird, but that was fun? Heh, here’s hoping not everythings that exciting.”   
“Pft, don’t try and play coy with me. I know deep down you wish everything was that exciting. Everyone in Neverland does. It’s why we follow Peter.”  
“You got me there, I do wish more days were like this. It sure beats my usual thieving. Ya know, a couple caps here, some bread there. Doesn’t take long before I get kicked out of town and I am moving again. Usually because the towns are so small that word travels fast I am trouble. Can’t exactly have a lucrative career as a street rat while being well known.”   
“Ha! So you are a rat. I knew it would be a good name for you.”   
“Again, you got me pegged fair and square…” he sits up a little on the bike, letting the contents he was holding onto slide down a little, the wind blowing through his face and hair, “Mhm..”  
The bike slowly came to a stop at the shack at the outskirts of Neverland, Leech used to her foot as a kickstand and reached back at Bert “Mask please, can’t let the townies see my face.”   
Bert obliged, handing her the mask and taking off the helmet he had stolen, giving it a once over before putting it on his head. He then took the bedding they had stolen and got off the bike.   
Leech pulled the mask back over her face, motioning towards the tree home “Go on ahead, I’ll meet you there.”   
“Alright, alright.” Bert started heading back on through town. This was the first time he had gotten to walk through it on his own… It was half scrap homes, half repurposed buildings that didn’t get leveled. Most of them homes, businesses seemed to just get stalls. Bert eyed each stall up and down with mostly disinterest. He kept fidgeting with the helmet, spinning it on top of his head while walking with hands full.   
“Ey, kiddo with the hair. What’s that there hat you got?” Bert pulled the helmet lip up to look at who was addressing him. It was a rather beefy man with a crew cut and a five o’clock.  
“Who me?” Bert looked around, hands a little too full to do much other than fixing his helmet  
“Yeah, that there hat you got. The helmet. Is it important to you?”   
“Not particularly… you looking to buy?” Bert eyed the guys stand, and lord behold this man was selling hats. It was probably one of the odder business ventures to take up in the wasteland. Bert was pretty familiar with selling stolen goods, but this was a bit of a new one.   
“I’ll trade it. One hat for a hat. How about that?” he gestured towards his stock. A lot of cowboy hats, a few dented fedoras and a couple of baseball caps.   
“...Eh, I dunno. Why would I want any of these hats?” Bert answered his own question for himself. His expression changing after he asked the question, “actually, that sounds good.”   
“Perfect! Which one do you want? I’ve got a fine selection as you can see!”   
Bert gave all the hats another once over, face grimacing a little. Maybe the cowboy hat? He had only ever seen farmers wear that, however... They didn’t scream cool. The shopkeeper gave him a slowly waning smile, realizing he was having trouble deciding   
“Erm… You have a baseball bat on your back there? Why not take a baseball cap? They’re made for each other.” he enthusiastically handed Bert a baseball cap, dusting off the lid of it. Bert took it from him nervously, passing the helmet over to him and pulling the baseball cap on his head. It was a tight fit, his hair took up a lot of space.   
“Mhm, tight… Well, that shouldn’t be too much a problem. Helps if I am stuck running around.” Bert glanced over at a mirror that seemed to be pulled from a larger broken one and then wrapped in cloth so it didn’t cut you. He tilted his face up, and then down, giving himself a look over. It wasn’t bad. Bert flashed a big cheeky grin at the mirror. He looked back at the vendor, who was trying on the helmet himself, “alright. Good doing business with ya.”   
Bert readjusted the bedding in his arms, carrying it to the home. He opened the door with his butt, walking in and turning on his heel towards the bunk “YO, Rats back.” Felt weird referring to himself as Rat, but hey… he was apart of the group now. Sort of. Yeah?   
He dropped his bedding onto his empty bed, tossing the pillow over to hounds bed. Bert didn’t hear anybody shuffling around or shouting back. Hm, quiet. Bert stepped back into the main room, looking around a few times. Apparently no one was around. Bert spotted a piece of paper on the table, he picked it up and scanned it over. It was a note for sure, but Bert couldn’t read. He set the paper back down and look back towards the door, slowly sitting down in the chair, waiting for Leech.   
Leech stepped through the door, arms stretched over her head, cracking her neck. She paused when she saw Bert, closing the door with her foot “New hat? What’s with that?”   
“Hat salesman wanted to trade it for my helmet.” Bert shrugs, still rocking his grin, “doesn’t it kinda work like your masks? Hard to see my full face so as long as I smile you can’t tell.”   
She snorted, nodding along with what he was saying “Alright, I get you. Looks good on you. I mean, it doesn’t fit our theme but hey it works for now.” She sat down next to Bert at the table, relaxing and looking around, “where is everyone…?”  
“Dunno, I think they left a note.” he pushed the note across the table to her, she picked it up and slowly stood back up   
“We have to go to the library.”   
“What? Are we going to see Peter?”   
“Yeah. We have to go now.” she was shaking slightly, crushing the paper in his hand   
“...Leech?”   
“Let’s go.” She stepped out, Bert taking a moment before following behind her  
“Leech? What is this?”   
“There’s been… a development. Rat, Bert. Please. I need to compose myself so don’t ask any more questions.” she took a deep breath, continuing to walk towards the library. Silently, Bert followed.


	4. NEVER GROWING UP

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Last chapter

There was an air of urgency in every one of Leeches steps, she wasn’t even moving that fast but for some reason, Bert felt like he couldn’t keep up as they made a beeline for the library. Leech opened up the door, stepping past the tables towards the rows of books. Bert glanced at the chair Peter had been in, it was empty with a book resting on it. Bert looked back to where Leech was going, seeing her turn down an alley of books. He cursed on his breath and darted to catch back up with her, turning the corner and seeing a faint blue glow coming from a large tank of water. The other side of the bookshelves lead to a clearing where the tank sat on the far end. Bert saw Leech standing in front of Peter and the rest of her crew to the left. On the right of Peter was someone else in a wood mask and to their right were several others in their own wooden masks. Bert slowly went to join Fox, who was making subtle hand motions for him to come over. He then caught a glance at someone behind Peter, tied to a chair with their head hung low. There were two long metal protrusions coming from the top of their heads, making them look almost like a demon for a second. Yet Bert soon realized it was another masked person, it looked like a modified gas mask, who exactly was this…?   
When Bert got close enough, Fox pulled him into a seat. His grip was firm, and his body language was grim. Leech seemed to be waiting for Peter to say something, and Fly had his hands over Hound, who could be heard quietly whimpering.   
“I think there’s only one way of handling it, don’t you Leech?”   
Leech’s hands tensed and untensed, and she looked towards the tank of water, dark masses starting to swarm within it. Bert could see them a bit clearly now in the murky water, squirming… pulsing masses. Bert had a horrible feeling in the back of his throat, Fox’s hand tensed on his shoulder. Was he that obvious? Bert tugged the hat down further on his head, forcing a smile. It hurt, it physically felt like his brain wanted to keel over and blast itself against the pavement. Leech grabbed the mask by the horn and ripped it off the head of the person strapped to the chair. They were a dirty looking older boy with a thin patch of hair on his chin and glinting jewelry on his nose and ears. His face was contorted in a mix of fear and anger, suddenly jerking and jostling in the chair. Leech seemed to ignore his looks of anger, grabbing the back of the chair and dragging it across the floor. The person attached to it let out a cry  
“LEECH! Leech please you know me, please. I… I didn’t mean to kill Dove Leech you have to believe me. We’re a group, we’re a team you can’t do this to me please..” his face devolved into a disgusting sob as they were pulled up the ramp next to the edge of the tank, propping them facing towards the water. It started to churn and slosh as the dark bodies inside it turned about in the water excitedly, “please…” he whined… looking back at Leech the best he can in the restrictive chair.   
Leech tilted the chair over for a second, but paused for a second, pulling to back and leaning into the boy tied to the chair “Why? I am sure you gave your excuses to Peter, but I wanna hear it. Since you care so much about groups just tell me why.”   
The boy looked terrified, stuttering over his words, looking into the unfeeling eyes of the mask “Please... It was an accident. She was just- she was just so fragile. She just kept pestering me and I didn’t think, I regret it. I really regret it, Leech, please, she was like a sister to m-” Leech kicked the chair into the water, letting out a long sigh that got more frustrated as it went out, turning into a yell of frustration.   
“FUCKS SAKE.” She stomped her foot at the top of the ramp, Goat turning and pivoting in the chair as it went down and then started to float back up to the top. It suddenly stopped as a large black mass slammed into Goat's body and begun to drag him down. The water began to bubble violently. The water was too murky to make out the details but Bert could see everything in his head. An unimaginably horrible way to die. Everything being sucked out. Being nothing but a grey husk at the end of it all. Bert tried holding the smile, but his foot was tapping on the floor again and again. He watched Leech throw a fit at the top of the tank like someone who had to throw away their favorite toy. It was all too childish for the grim scene playing out.   
Bert’s eyes ripped away from the grizzly scene in the tank, and he noticed a pair of dark-rimmed glasses watching him with veiled intent, how long had Peter been watching Bert? His foot stopped instantly, he suddenly became conscious about every single minute movement he made. What did Peter know? Wait? What was there to know? Bert wasn’t sure, but he got this awful feeling that Peter knew something about Bert that Bert didn’t. How was he supposed to handle this feeling? He could dismiss it? He could tell himself he’ll be fine. He could keep still, keep smiling. Hide. Hide. Hide.   
Leech stepped down the ramp, stepping past Peter and the wooden mask. Peter didn’t even react, letting Leech stomp off towards her group. She said something, Bert couldn’t hear her. What was going on? Why was everything so dull. He felt like he couldn’t see, he wasn’t there. He was looking at this from somewhere else. Suddenly, he was pulled back by a shake on the shoulder. Fox was still standing over him, “C’mon Rat, let’s go.”   
Bert hopped to his feet, bouncing a little as he and the rest of the group silently followed Leech who had stormed to the home. Halfway there Hound muttered something under his breath. Fox quirked up, snapping his head towards Hound   
“Did you say something Hound?” Fly and Bert stopped, stepping back from the two.   
“...She didn’t- she didn’t” Hound was shaking, holding onto the sides of his mask   
“Have to kill him? He didn’t have to kill Dove. We’re all doing things we don’t have to do. Isn’t that why we’re here?” Fox clicked his tongue, looking down Hound. Yet his voice felt different to Bert. Like it wasn’t Fox talking to him, everything was so vague and indescribable to him it was making his stomach churn.   
“We’re here to just..have fun! Break shit fuck rules! I thought that made us… you know-”  
“Rule. One. We are not family. We’re all loose pieces that exist together but we’re not family. You start thinking of each other like family you’ll ruin yourself. People in this group come and go all the time. Grow up Hound, there is no ‘we’ having fun. We’re all in this for our own selfish reasons. If Peter didn’t exist, Goat would of killed Dove when he first met her probably.”   
“That- none of this makes sense!”  
“I’ll say it only once more Hound, grow up. Leech understands, I understand, Peter understands, everyone except you seems to get it.”   
Fly stepped in front of Hound, barking back at Fox, “What? So you’re friendly until it matters? Rule one is just an out for you to abandon us whenever you feel it?” fly’s voice cracked slightly as he made the bitter accusation   
Fox didn’t have a response, just watching them with the blank stare of his mask. That damn stare. Bert pulled the brim of his hat down more, slowly walking away from the confrontation to go to the house.   
Fly took a step forward “HUH? ANSWER ME!” He shoved Fox who took a step back, still silently staring back   
“You’re treating me like we didn’t kill Dove’s murderer. If you can’t detach yourself from that murderer being ‘Goat’ then I don’t have time to argue with you. Just- Take some advice, don’t get too attached. Just having fun-” Fly tackled him and Bert scurried away after Leech. She would be able to stop them from fighting, but Bert wasn’t sure if she would anymore… Did she even care if they killed each other? What the hell kind of place is this? Bert was lost, he... Had cared? Was that his mistake? Was it his fault to care? He wasn’t sure. He pushed open the scrap door and looked around  
“Leech? Leech where are you?” Bert perked his ears up, hearing some rustling from above. He hopped to the rope and clambered up it, seeing Leech crouched over a long box. She slammed it shut, turning towards Bert   
“What is it?” she had her mask on still, regarding Bert curtly  
“Fox and Fly, they’re gonna kill each other Leech! It- you gotta stop em.”   
She looked like she was about to jump forward, but held herself back. Her fingers rolled and cracked a few times as if she had to think about it. She finally croaked out, “I- I will be there in a second. Promise. I won’t let them kill each other.”   
Bert gave them a moment's look before sliding down the rope to go back out to check on the fight. Bert was going so fast he about tripped and ate dirt but he was able to catch him, looking rapidly for Fox and Fly. Bert soundHound in a pile on the ground, Fox was sitting on the ground leaning up against a wall, hand protecting his face. Fly was standing with a slight lean. The both of them looked worse for wear. Fly lurched forward, throwing a kick at the downed Fox. He blocked it, a loud clang from the sheet metal as his body weight bounced against it.   
Bert crouched over Hound, putting a hand on them to check how they were doing. They were breathing faintly, the glass of their goggle was cracked and the snout was bent in. He probably had his face slammed into something. There was another clang, Fox letting out a cry in pain. He held his arms curling into himself slightly as Fly backed away with a slight stumble in his step, breathing heavily.   
Fly leaned forward, but stopped when Leech put a hand on his shoulder, “Fly.”   
He paused, looking at her, shrinking back slightly “I just- … I am going home. I don’t need to explain myself.” he shrugged Leech off his shoulder, limping over to Bert and reaching down to pick Hound up onto his shoulder. Bert watched him limp off with Hound, only the sound of shuffling feet in the dirt. Bert gave Fox and Leech a silent look. He was conflicted and confused. What the hell was going on? Everything hit the fan so quickly. Were all those goods times just a mask? If that was the case, what was underneath it? Just A Bunch of selfish kids loosely held together by a sense of not belonging? Leech helped Fox to his feet, dusting him off a bit   
“C’mon don’t tell me you couldn’t take on Fly.” she goaded him, pretending like it wasn’t anything more than just a small scuffle   
“I think we made some sort of mistake. We can’t let Peter hear about this.”   
“I know…” she continued dusting him off, just gingerly papping him down   
“We should have been-”  
“Fox. I know. This is my fault, I know.” she stopped patting him down, looking back at Bert and just sort of tilting her head, “Thanks for letting me know. Sorry, you had to see all that. Let’s head back to the house alright?”  
“Is everything going to be..ok?” Bert had to ask, he knew the answer was probably no. There were too many cracks that had just been exposed.  
“Of course, we just need a change in uh- how I do things.” she looked down, seemingly thinking on her own words   
“Is what Fly said true?”   
Fox perked up to respond as if he wanted to snap back at Bert for asking, but he shrunk back, letting out a sigh.   
“I don’t know what Fly said...but, just know that this group is for convenience. At the end of the day, the whole point of Neverland is being able to break and steal as much as you want. You know, let loose from the rules. Yet, we really couldn’t run on anarchy. So, Peter, had all the groups follow a simple set of rules to keep everything uh… loose. He knew a lot of people were probably gonna die one way or the next, and he didn’t want entire groups falling apart when one or two people died so… you know, we were supposed to be impersonal. We- I messed up. I am sorry, if I tricked you into thinking we were friends. That was really selfish of me to do to the group.”   
Bert reeled back a little, reaching up to his hair and giving it a good tug, twisting it in his fingers a little as he started to stand up fully “Right…I am new, so I guess it’s good I found out quicker than Fly and Hound huh?”   
Leech nervously laughed, “Yeah, that’s the bright side of it. You still want to smash things and still shit right?”   
“Of course! Yeah, of course.”   
Leech laughed again “Ah, good. Peter really doesn’t like it when people leave without saying anything to him. If the brotherhood found out we were here…well they’d wipe us all out! And if that runner came from my group… well, I am sure he’d disband it and absorb it into the other group. Hell, that might already be happening! I am sure Peter thinks I am a terrible leader now. I bet he knows all about the rules I’ve broken but he's just waiting for it to get me killed to make a point. Haha… hahahaha!” She clenched and unclenched her hands, continuing to laugh. Bert stepped back slightly, while Fox placed a hand on her shoulder and gave it a light squeeze. She stopped laughing, “right, Fox. Let’s get you to a medical shack.” she turned away from Bert, helping Fox along down the road the opposite way Hound and Fly went   
Bert wasn’t sure where to go. It felt a lot like when he first left the home, expect a lot less exciting. Now he’s just adrift without direction, and upset. He decided to wander the town of Neverland instead of heading back to the house, going to see Fly and Hound would just be an upsetting reminder of what he just heard.   
Around the center of town southwestward there was a dingy wood and scrap building with a sign hanging off of it. ‘Pied Piper Bar and Tavern’, it had a crude painting of a man in a hat with a flute looking thing. Bert wasn’t sure what it was, but it looked stupid. He stepped inside and found himself a seat at a table in the corner of the room. The place was moderately full, and they were all too busy conversing amongst themselves to even notice Bert. He finally felt somewhat comfortable. Being invisible in a random bar in town and just sitting around. Just sitting around had taken up a lot of his journey up till now. Whether it be in a bar, or under a lone tree in the plain. He slowly closed his eyes, leaning up against the wall and just resting. That’s what he really needed right now, rest. He could worry about all the drama later. He wasn’t sure how long he had been out for, but he was awakened with a hand on his shoulder, his eyes shot open and he instinctively pulled away from the source of the hand, bonking his head against the wall  
“Woah, take it easy. You’re gonna hurt yourself like that.”   
Bert blinked and squinted as his eyes adjusted, and he saw that it was no other than Peter. He stopped himself from reeling back again, just wordlessly staring at him for a moment, unsure of what to say   
“Hm, cat got your tongue? Relax. This is my favorite bar, finding you here was a coincidence, honest.” he chuckled to himself, taking a seat across from Bert and pushing his glasses up.   
“You… sure do make a lot of assumptions.” Bert crossed his arms, tapping his fingers on his forearm. Peter shrugged   
“It’s usually safe to assume I make people nervous. Which is fair enough, I am a very intimidating guy.” he gave a sly smile at his own comment.   
“Sure, Mr.Scary, what do you want with me?” Bert snarled back at Peter, who seemed entirely unphased   
“Just to talk, are you enjoying your time in Neverland?” That felt like a loaded question without a good answer, Bert clicked his tongue trying to quickly pull together an answer.   
“Sure, it’s been...interesting.” Bert, cracked his knuckles with his thumb, twisting a bit in his seat   
“Interesting, interesting.” Peter echoed back, “well I am glad Leech has shown you an interesting time. She sure did put on a good show with executing Goat. Hmhm, I didn’t even need to tell her to do that. She just does what she thinks I want. At this point, I just make the implication I want her to do something and she just does what she thinks I want done. I think it’s a fun window into how she views me. Don’t you think?” he gave a thin smile, putting his head on his hands   
“It… You- ain’t that self-destructive? What if she does something thinking you want it, but you actually don’t?”   
“See, that’s the beauty of it, Bert. This is what I think Leech misunderstands about this all in the end, all the lost kids. This ship ain’t built to swim. It’s made to fail, really. The whole idea is to take all this pent up youthful self-destructive energy and prime it for detonation. Goat kills dove, Leech kills Goat, your whole group falls apart. More chaos, more and more selfishness. I was hoping Fly would kill Fox ya know! Really just let it all implode.” Bert’s face had tensed up, back against the metal wall.   
“...I- What the fuck is wrong with you?” Bert seemed less scared now, more pissed. His face morphing from a grin to gritted teeth   
Peter clapped his hands together “I am so glad you asked. I never get to talk about myself, ever. You’ve really given me a gift of an opportunity Bert- or is it Rat? Either way, I don’t usually have someone to talk to this about. You always read about bad guys monologuing but what the hell else are they gonna do? They have no one to ever listen to them and all they ever do is stew on their reasoning.” The man was babbling and chittering like an excited dog, getting a wry plastered smile on his face   
“I am- going to leave.” Bert slowly got up from his seat, before having his wrist grabbed by Peter   
“You’re not very smart, are you? You can’t just… leave, I would have thought you’d have gotten that. That’s not a very hard thing to grasp. You get to hear all this because I am going to kill you, Bert. DO you understand? How slowly should I say this? I am going to kill you.”   
Bert tugged on his arm “Those are some really big words from the prick wearing glasses inside and talking about driving entire gangs into the dirt just for the fun of it”   
Peter pulled out a 10mm “Bert this prick is about to plug you if you don’t play this smart and just sit down. I’ve got so much to get off my chest ya know? If all of it just went 6ft under with you I’d feel a lot better.”   
Bert tensed up once he saw the gun, slowly sitting back down, Peter's arm still locked to his wrist. He gave it a light pull which Peter responded to with a lift of the gun. Bert’s eyes surveyed his surroundings, none of the patrons seemed to even notice. Even if they did, they probably wouldn’t stop Peter now if they hadn’t yet. He took a deep breath and exhaled slowly, “Right, I am the dumb one. No wonder you know so fucking much about how dumbass kids think you’re nothing but one yourself”  
“C’mon Bert don’t play my game here. The mind is my field of expertise.” He smirked, waving his gun at Bert, “you kids are all so easy. You’re set to self-destruct and none of you even realize it. I think that’s the most fun part really, self-gratifying destruction. Ya know? You have a theory about the world, everyone does. Yet I am out here PROVING my theory with you fucking idiots. Even if it kills me I’ll die knowing I was right every second of my life.” he giggled to himself, almost giddy at that idea.   
“You’re really fucking pathetic, die.” Bert was having none of this anymore, giving Peter a sneer. How could he have been so afraid of this fucking moron? How could anyone of let themselves get tricked by him? How could LEECH get tricked by him? Was it tricked? Or was Bert also just imposing an image of superiority onto Peter without realizing it? Fuck that speculative bullshit, either which way Bert now had a hand whether Peter realized it or not. Bert now could see what was just behind Peter’s shades and he wasn’t scared of him anymore. He was just a punk with a gun like any other trash in the wasteland, and Bert had had a few run-ins with trash before.   
“Bert, Bert. I am holding a gun. Bert. I am the one pointing a gun at you. Get that through your fucking HEAD.”   
“How about you put that fucking LEAD IN MY HEAD instead of threatening me!” Bert leaned in, grabbing Peter’s wrist in return and twisting his hand against theirs. Peter just cocked an eyebrow, getting an ugly frown on his face   
“I AM NOT DONE TALKING. YOU WILL DIE WHEN I SAY YOU DO-” Bert slid his bat out with his other hand while he was distracted with Bert twisting his arm and THWACKED Peter across the head. His glasses flew off and his wide-eyed blank expression was clear. It was a clear disorientating hit as he dropped the gun to the floor. Bert scrambled from their grasp and dived for the gun, shoving the table to the side and taking Peter with it as he crumpled to the floor under it. Bert took the gun and ran as fast as he could out of the bar. Outside the bar was two wooden masked members, who were leaning into the doorway when Bert burst out, causing them to jump away. When Bert caught his eyes on them he instantly lifted the gun up, pointing it at the two.   
“Back the FUCK UP. I AM STUPID AND ARMED. Mess with me and I’ll probably accidentally shoot you. I said BACK UP.” Bert was backing up himself as the two masked figures lifted their hands slowly, their gun’s stuck at their hips. Bert kept backing up till he could round a corner and start bolting away as fast as possible towards the edge of town. He could hear shouts behind him but he just kept running as fast as he could. He bee-lined for the shed with the coaster bikes, grabbing it out from the shed. The shouts were getting louder. He began running with the bike in tow, looking behind him several times to keep tabs on his pursuers. He could see the glint of guns, and that was his cue to throw himself onto the bike, wobbling back and forth as gunshots went off and tossed dirt into the air. He peddled best he could, swerving and twisting in weird ways as he attempted to keep balance while bouncing off rocks. This worked in his favor as bullets whizzed past him. When he finally found his balance and stopped pedaling the town of Neverland was becoming nothing more than a speck behind him.   
What the fuck just happened?   
Everything was suddenly quiet.   
The crescendo of gunfire was replaced by the whiz of the bike wheels moving beneath him. It was calm? That didn’t make sense. It shouldn’t be calm. Bert’s heart was pounding in his ears yet this stupid fucking desert was still so fucking CALM.  
Bert skidded and twisted on the bike as he tried to pull it to a stop, pulling up to a large rock and propping himself up behind it with the bike, holding the hat to his head and trying to find his breath. In and out, air goes in and out. Bert eventually looked up to the sky, it was so clear. Everything had happened so fast, but Bert was still stuck in those moments. The world had moved on, or maybe it had never cared? It was really silly to think it’d start a whole tornado up just because of how Bert felt.   
Leech saved him, Leech took him to the hotel, Leech killed Goat, Peter tried to kill Bert.. it had all happened so fast. Was it even real? Was any of this real? Bert’s breathing slowed as he found a spot in the sky, and stuck to it. How much time was passing? Who knows. If they were traveling on the other bike to find him they just might pass right by with how the rock covered him. Too bad it didn’t give any shade, some shade would be nice right now. Bert blinked a few times, trying to break from the stupor he was in. Yeah, shade. He needed a place to hide out and lay low, Peter probably wasn’t going to be very happy he cracked his head with a bat. He cracked a wide grin, heh, he did use the bat Peter gave him. It had a nasty bend in it now but… it felt nice to give him that piece of dramatic irony. There must be just some raggedy-ass abandon building or farm somewhere…   
He hopped onto the bike, riding it out west from the rock. There was a lot of plains on the way to the city, there had to be at least one farm in it all. Bert had been to a few abandon one's on the past, usually filled top to bottom with radroaches. He road for maybe 10 minutes before he saw some fence work surrounding an area that had no crops. Yeah, that looked about right. An untended farm tended to just look like everything else but the fence gave him a clue that he was on the right way, looking left and right before seeing a building in the distance. He slid through a gap in the fence and road onward towards the building, bike bouncing against the slightly more bumpy earth.   
As he got closer to the ruined barn it was obviously gonna be a pretty shit shelter, but it would do as long as it didn’t rain. The roof was basically entirely collapsed in, with some radroaches sitting around on top of it. Bert popped the magazine out of the 10mm after some fiddling and took a gander at how many bullets he had to work with… more than he could count, good.   
Bert slipped through the wide-open farm door, the porch was rotted and falling apart, each step on the wood felt like his foot was going to go through it. He crept his way through the farm, hearing the scuttling of radroaches nearby. Bert found the closest room and checked inside, a few radroaches sitting around on the walls and a nearby bed. Bert fired a single shot and popped one in the middle, sending it skittering back and sputtering around in on itself. The other radroaches quickly scattered through various holes and rotted out pieces of the walls. Bert let out a sigh and shut the door behind himself, he can just chill here. He left the bike hidden in some tall grass, he doubted lugging it around inside would be good for a need for a quick escape. Either which way he taking time doing something, and he preferred the option where he didn't risk falling through on the porch. Bert let out a sigh, the ride here had distracted him from his thoughts on everything, but slowly it all returned to him. The sun was setting outside… it was pretty. Bert, however, opted to find a spot on the ceiling and stare at it. He doubted he could do much sleeping. Time slowly became an intangible liquid, as the dark was soon overtaking the room Bert was in. Only two days in Neverland and he already bailed, man that had to be a record of some sort. He began to chuckle to himself, it was all so absurd. Too absurd for him, was any of that even real? Maybe he sucked down some cactus juice and the trip turned bad towards the end, but the first part was nice. Feeling like he had friends was nice, but really shit just doesn’t work that way does it?   
There was a sudden splinter of wood like something heavy had pressed down on the porch outside. Bert froze, as he suddenly stopped breathing and sat as perfectly still as he could. He was listening, but also avoiding being listened to.   
There was another stomp followed by a curse as the door was opened, there was a scuttle of a radroach approaching the noise and suddenly a wet SCHLINK followed by a disgusting sucking noise. The footsteps continued shortly after, passing by the door to the room Bert was hiding in. Whoever was on the other side was taking in the area and guessing where he was hiding. He could easily outrun them if they chose the wrong door. Bert took shallow, quiet breathes. He could feel all his muscles tense, ready to spring into action at a moment's notice. His hand was gingerly laid on the gun, and he debated picking it up just to be ready. Would that make enough noise to be heard? The footsteps continued, moving in a tight circle around the front entrance of the farm home.   
“Rat, I know you’re here.” It was Leech. Of course, it was Leech who else would Peter send? If she died, he wouldn’t care. He knew she would do anything to keep her place as a group leader, he probably only told her ‘you know what to do’ and she went out to kill Bert. Was Bert shaking? Just lightly, was he scared? Hell no, of course not. Leech didn’t scare him. Of course, she didn’t scare him. He had a gun and was hidden. He had every advantage. Yet…  
She had already shown she can kill people she’s known for a while, would she hesitate to stick Bert? Would Bert hesitate to pull the trigger? Can you pull it? Can you? Pull it, pull the trigger. Don’t hesitate, you’ll die. You die if you don’t act. Act or you die.   
Bert didn’t even realize it but he had picked up the 10mm, a quiet scrape of metal on wood echoed out in the empty house. The weight of the person on the other side of the door shifted, she was looking right at the door. The weight changed again, and then suddenly the door was flying at Bert, kicked off it’s rotted out hinges and flying at him. Bert’s eyes went wide. He couldn’t see Leech and he needed to get out of the way of the door. He rolled to the side, seeing Leech up in his face too late. She had the glint of something sharp and silver in her hand. His body moved without him and he slammed the butt of the gun into one of her giant eyepieces, a sharp sound of glass cracking as she let out a yell and flinched, dropping something as she reached up to attend to her eye. Bert scrambled away to the other side of the room. The knife, dangled next to her leg, attached to a backpack by a tube. She ripped off her mask and held a hand over her eye, looking over at Bert with a weird expression. It was like she was beyond pissed, and she had come all the way back to hurt. Like some puppy, you had kicked. The puppy is still a canine at the end that could bite back, but it’s too confused to understand why it was kicked in the first place. Bert aimed the gun at her shakily, backed up into the wall. He kept glancing at the now open doorway but kept his eyes on Leech as much as he could. He knew she could move fast.   
“Goddamnit, why can’t you just make this EASY” she sounded on the verge of tears, like a child about to throw a tantrum. This child, however, had a lethal weapon.   
“Excuse me did you come all this way expecting me to lay down and die for you, Leech? How about go fuck yourself, you’re the idiot for not expecting me to fight back.” he waved the gun a bit to try and threaten her, but she looked unphased by it   
“Oh come off it Rat you’re not going to shoot me-”   
“STOP CALLING ME RAT! IT’S BERT GIBBINS. Bert! You don’t get to do all this shit and call me Rat like we’re some old amigos meeting on the trail again. You don’t get to just do that!”   
“I'LL CALL YOU WHAT I DAMN WELL PLEASE YOU RAT” She grit her teeth and charged him, diving at him with one hand extending the knife-like object in her hand and other covering her wounded eye.   
Bert flinched, and his finger pulled the trigger. Her shoulder recoiled back and she instantly dropped the knife, it dangled helplessly by her like the other. She backed up a few feet before collapsing against the wall. She looked too shocked to say anything, tears welling up in her eyes.   
“...Goodbye, Leech. Don’t fucking follow me.”   
“I can’t go back now”  
“Good, fuck Peter and fuck you for letting him decide anything for you. He knew from the start you were just a leech looking for any kind of validation. God, FUCK. I AM SO ANGRY. FUCK FUCK FUCK! Playing friendly just to use people, is that all anybodys good for? Huh?”   
Leech flinched when Bert started yelling, looking down. She didn’t have much to say. She was beaten and broken.   
“Now I am pissed that I am just venting to you like Peter was to me. Lucky you I don’t have any fucking plans on splattering you.” Bert pulled on his hair with one hand, grinding his teeth for a moment before stomping away from Leech. Leaving her in the farm with nothing but a few stray radroaches and the night sky.   
Bert lifted the bike out from the tall grass and saw it had a puncture in the motor, and let out a groan. He didn’t see whatever Leech came in on, and he was too angry to even begin looking for it rationally. So he did the only irrational thing he knew how to do well, and he started walking. Where? Nowhere, anywhere, wherever. Just away from here, from all the chaos. The lonely night sky was the only companion he really needed in the end. The night sky never lied, it was always as it was, and it never tried to use him for anything and with a little music, the view could be beautiful.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is my least favorite chapter in my opinion. But I don't have the energy to fully rework it nowadays so I just live with the mistakes. Bert has got like. 80 layers of abusive adults in his life.


End file.
